Chorley gym owner jailed for breaching order banning him from contacting ex partner
A man whose girlfriend fled to Chorley to escape his violent clutches has been jailed for breaching a restraining order banning him from contacting her.
A judge in Preston heard gym owner Luke Brown had broken the court order four times since 2022 and was already in prison serving time for a previous offence of failing to stay away from his former partner.
Jailing the 34-year-old for a further 22 months Judge Michael Maher warned him that if he continued to breach restraining orders the sentences would just get “higher and higher”.
The judge described the relationship as “utterly toxic”. He told Brown: “You will be well-advised to put her behind you and get on with your life.”
It was claimed in court that the woman had “escaped” from the house they shared near Bolton and set up home in Chorley to get away from the man who she claimed had “ruined her life”.
In a victim impact statement she accused him of constant bullying, wanting to control her and claimed he had threatened to kill her on several occasions. At one point she said she had attempted to take her own life and added “I don’t believe he will ever stop harassing me.”
But the court heard the woman had later withdrawn the statement admitting some of those claims were untrue. She also refused to testify against him in court.
Dismissing her claims Brown told police it was actually he who had been the victim of domestic abuse. He alleged she had been the manipulative one and he had absolutely no intention of ever contacting her again.
On the occasion he was caught at her new home in Chorley the woman claimed he had turned up unannounced. Yet he alleged she had invited him over to spend the night and had even driven to Bolton to pick him up.
Judge Maher ruled that whoever was telling the truth, it was clear Brown had breached the restraining order by seeing her that night.
Barrister John Richards, prosecuting, said Brown had been jailed for two years by a judge at Bolton Crown Court for breaching a previous restraining order – his third such breach – and he was now back in prison on recall for the latest offence.
His long list of previous convictions included violence, criminal damage, robbery and affray. He was also found guilty of common assault against the same woman. She had said she was “scared of what he can do”.
Mr Richards said that according to the woman she had moved to Chorley to get away from him but had been “effectively hunted down” by Brown. The restraining order banned him from making any contact with her either directly or indirectly and not to enter or remain in any building where he knew she was.
His defence lawyer Ellie Watson told the judge Brown admitted breaching the order. He accepted there had been contact between them, but he denied ever assaulting her.
“It is a deliberate breach,” she said. “He knew he wasn’t supposed to contact her, but he has done so.
“It is not a serious breach. He has not been turning up uninvited at her address, he has been invited round there. Mr Brown knows now not to contact her, not to go to her address, even if contact has been initiated by her.”
Ms Watson asked the judge not to pass a sentence which would take him beyond his expected release date in May “to enable him to step back into being a hard-working citizen in the community”.
Judge Maher told Brown this was his fourth breach of a restraining order against the same victim. “You say in effect that there was contact before the date of the breach and she was in effect complicit in this breach.
“You say she picked you up and brought you to her accommodation in Chorley, but that was in stark contrast to what she said in her statement. She said she didn’t tell you where she was living.”
He said in Brown’s account he had claimed there had been multiple contacts between the couple and she had been giving him a lift to various locations prior to that night, contradicting her account where she said he had “effectively hunted her down”.
Whatever the truth, Judge Maher went on: “It seems to me that you have absolutely no regard whatsoever for orders of the court prohibiting you from contacting (her). You know you should be nowhere near her.”
He added that the relationship had been “utterly toxic”. But he told him: “You have a dreadful record, particularly for harassment and for breaching restraining orders.”
He sentenced Brown, of Westland Avenue, Farnworth to 22 months in jail and imposed a new stricter restraining order.